11 career-altering album leaks that defined the filesharing era

Some of these bootlegs hurt, some helped

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

01/12

Nas – I Am... (1999)

Nas was recording a double-album when a number of slated recordings leaked online—forcing the rapper to record new material, splitting what would've been a killer double album (see: 2002's The Lost Tapes for what could've been) into two middling releases (I Am.. was accompanied by Nastradamus, which dropped later that year) that basically derailed Nas's career until 2001's stellar comeback Stillmatic put him back on track.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

02/12

Jay-Z – Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter (1999)

The album release party for Jay-Z's already-leaked fourth album was held a full month ahead of schedule to spite Napster bootleggers. Not only was the night significant for taking a then-unprecedented approach to leakers, but also due to Jay-Z being accused for the stabbing of Lance "Un" Rivera, an act which saw the rapper facing up to 15 years in prison despite his claims of innocence.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

03/12

Radiohead – Kid A (2000)

In advance of Radiohead's left-field follow-up to OK Computer, Capitol Records designed "iBlip", an online platform allowing fans to stream "blips" of upcoming songs. When the album leaked three weeks before its release, Capitol made the then-unheard of move of making all of Kid A available on iBlip.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

04/12

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

In 2001, tracks from their now-beloved album leaked online after Wilco were dropped from their label before it could even be released. Wilco responded by streaming the whole album off their website and successfully toured off of the leaked songs, netting a new record deal (and official release of YHF) in 2002.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

05/12

Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)

The band didn't respond to the leak of their sixth album as kindly as they did with the Kid A situation. After an unfinished version of their album surfaced online 10 weeks before its release, with guitarist Johnny Greenwood responding "We're kind of pissed off about it, to be honest."

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

06/12

Kanye West – The College Dropout (2004)

Kanye's post-release tweaking of The Life of Pablo garnered plenty of attention, but it wasn't anything new: After West's debut album leaked online months before its release, the rapper responded to its online reception by tweaking and updating songs in advance of the album's official release.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

07/12

Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine (2005)

Apple's collaboration with producer Jon Brion leaked while spending many years being shelved by her label after its supposed 2003 release date – though it wasn't until years later, in 2005, when a signifcantly-altered, Brion-less version of the album officially saw the light of day (Brion's version is better).

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

08/12

Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor (2006)

Lupe Fiasco's debut album leaked almost half a year before its September 2006 release date—but the hype that the unofficial release garnered in online circles inspired Lupe to return to the studio and lay down even more tracks for his upcoming moment in the spotlight.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

09/12

Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III (2008)

Most of the tracks set to be on Lil Wayne's breakout album leaked online a full year before its eventual June 2008 release – though this only caused the prolific rapper to officially release the leaked tracks as an anticipatory EP and grace fans with a Carter III comprised of an entirely-new set of songs.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

10/12

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (2009)

An unmastered version of Veckatimest would leak online months before its late May release, and though frontman Ed Droste expressed his disappointment over the leak sounding "like an underwater YouTube stream," the hype garnered in the months leading up to its release placed the album in the Billboard Top 10 in its debut week.

fullscreen

keyboard_arrow_left

keyboard_arrow_right

back to start

11/12

Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)

Kendrick Lamar's highly-anticipated follow-up to Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was accidentally released to the iTunes store over a week before its schedule release. Though it would be quickly taken down, the damage was done, and with illegal copies already circulating in the wild, Lamar dropped the album a few days in advance.

11 career-altering album leaks that defined the filesharing era

In 2013, Jai Paul soundtracked an entire summer by complete accident. Paul’s debut release of catchy, sample-driven pop may have garnered acclaim and attention, but the real kicker is that he didn’t even release it. Though the singer had long stayed silent over how, exactly, his debut release unofficially surfaced, he did clarify at the time that he had nothing to do with it:

To confirm: demos on bandcamp were not uploaded by me, this is not my debut album. Please don't buy. Statement to follow later. Thanks, Jai

Six years later, though, and we’ve finally been blessed with an official release of the debut (in addition to some truly incredible new Paultunes). The official release of Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)—Paul’s retroactively-titled debut—isn’t just the capstone to a story over half a decade in the making, but a throwback to a past era of music consumption.

In the age of Spotify and surprise releases, it’s pretty simple for music fans to resign themselves to entirely-legal means of musical consumption (even if the artist compensation is questionable). Back in the wild west days of the early internet, though, whether you armed yourself with LimeWire or BitTorrent as your weapon of choice, album leaks were the cornerstone of any music lover’s lifestyle, and it upset the shit out of artists and the music industry as a whole—for numerous reasons.

Whether you were hunting Radiohead albums months before they dropped or hyping Lupe Fiasco’s debut, we’ve highlighted 11 historic album leaks that defined the filesharing days of yore.